BATON ROUGE, La. – With the 2014-15 athletic season right around the corner, the LSU Summer Academic Success Program put on by the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes added a new wrinkle to its life skills workshop going forward for incoming freshmen called Tiger Hearts, which taught hands-on CPR techniques to the group.

The idea to start Tiger Hearts came from a demonstration the Boston Athletic Association put on during the Boston Marathon that showed runners how to correctly perform CPR on the spot in case of emergency. With LSU athletic trainers in attendance, the idea was broached to bring that same type of demonstration to the student-athletes who could potentially save the life of another student-athlete during competition or practice.

“Tiger Hearts is great opportunity for student-athletes to have the tools available to help save someone's life in the event of a cardiac arrest,” student athletic trainer Derek Carter said.

Assisted by LSU’s Director of Athletic Training in Ray Castle, LSU Sr. Associate Athletics Trainer Shelly Mullenix and student athletic trainers, the student-athletes were able to learn the signs of cardiac arrest and practiced CPR on modified dummies specifically made for this exercise.

"It was very helpful because you never know when something like that could happen," Aaron Epps of the men’s basketball team said.

Although the SASP was the first to utilize this new initiative, it will become a staple of the curriculum for the CCACSA in the future that will be taught to all student-athletes at LSU.

"It was important for us to learn how to possibly save a life and that time is precious," LSU football player Jamal Adams said.